Illusions
by Scylla's revenge
Summary: A top-secret mission for the Varden goes terribly wrong, and a half-dwarf spy named Corliss is imprisoned in Uru'baen. She quickly learns that nothing is as it seems in the mad king's castle, and secrets lurk in every corner of the Empire. Surrounded by lies and illusions, will Corliss ever find the truth? And if she does, will she have the courage to believe it?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Corliss set her bounty down by her feet, her heart pounding against her ribs with a mixture of exhaustion and fear. Kneeling in the shadows of the great stone perimeter of the castle, she adjusted her worn leather gloves, making sure they covered all of her hands and wrists. She knew the egg couldn't hatch for her, but her orders were explicit: she _must_ not let it touch her skin.

Scooping up the egg again, Corliss rearranged it in her leather satchel and took a deep breath. She began to whisper a spell into the evening air, reciting the words by heart: "Frethya eka frá ven." As the magic began to take hold, the girl looked down at her slender feet and watched them gradually disappear, followed by her legs, then torso, the plain gray servant's uniform melting into the dim shadows of the twilight.

Once the invisibility spell was complete, she tore off into the night, running through the plan in her mind for the hundredth time as she went. Every aspect of her escape had been planned down to the smallest of details, but it couldn't hurt to think through it again. Gods willing, nothing would surprise her tonight.

Well, nothing _else, _that is. The color of the egg she had stolen had certainly given her pause. She couldn't understand it! All of Nasuada's sources had spoken of a _green _egg remaining in Galbatorix's possession. Green, not a deep, metallic copper! Her sources must have simply been misinformed of the details. After all, it didn't matter what color the damned thing was, she reminded herself. Hopefully… _hopefully_ there were no other details they had gotten wrong.

In what little spare time she had had as a scullery maid in the castle kitchens, Corliss had poured endlessly over a map of the city given to her by the Varden. She had traced every manor, shop, and alley, committing them all to memory. She pictured it clearly in her mind as she ran: the city of Uru'baen was organized in a great circle, with the king's castle in the center on a high hill. Spreading outward were the mansions and vast gardens of the nobility, then the middle class homes and merchants' shops, which grew shabbier and more cluttered as they spread outward. Surrounding the city was a great wall, made of colossal blocks of grey stone; they were stacked oppressively in a ring around the city, with only four gates, one facing north, one south, one east, and one west.

It was the northern gate that Corliss ran to now. She deemed it the least likely to draw suspicion, since the majority of the fields and farmhouses lay to the north of the city, which would be more difficult to pass through unnoticed once she had made it past the wall. However, that was a small price to pay if the guards were drawn to the eastern and southern gates, which were a more obvious choice for a thief headed towards the Varden in the Beor Mountains. Corliss's real destination, though, lay to the north, in Du Weldenvarden, where her bounty would be kept safe and ferried through the elven cities to find it a Rider.

She dodged, invisible, between manors and opulent gardens, down wide, empty streets. King Galbatorix had issued a curfew in the city decades ago, and this late in the evening only a few stragglers remained outdoors, rushing towards their homes with their heads down. Corliss didn't dare imagine what punishment awaited those who didn't make it inside in time. She dashed past them all, her cloth shoes silent on the cobblestone streets. She had made it almost halfway to the wall, when an alarm sounded from behind her.

Horns shattered the silent evening air, and Corliss nearly jumped out of her skin in horror. So Galbatorix had learned that he had been robbed. _Barzul._ A moment later horns sounded _ahead_ of her as well, most likely from the guards prowling the city walls. Heart pounding, Corliss positively fled down the winding streets, her hands sweaty in their gloves._ Barzul, barzul, barzul!_

As she twisted her neck around to look for guards that might be pouring down the street at any moment, she tripped. Loudly. As she landed, the egg flew out of her satchel, becoming all too visible as it soared away. The copper orb bounced with horrible clangs down the street, clashing with the horns still echoing from every direction.

Corliss, having fallen spectacularly and skidded for several agonizing feet on the cobblestones, watched in horror. The egg finally rolled to a stop as the girl scrabbled to her feet and lunged for it, but too late: a group of five soldiers appeared at the south end of the street, eyes wide in surprise. Corliss didn't know if they had a magician among them that could sense her presence through an invisibility spell, but there was no way they could have missed the great shining copper egg, reflecting a ruddy golden light on the cobblestones all around it.

Perhaps the guards were taken aback at seeing their prize sitting in the middle of the street waiting for them. Perhaps they suspected a trap. In any case, they hesitated for a moment, and that was all Corliss needed to grab the egg and dive behind a shop corner. "_Copy me," _she breathed in the Ancient Language as the soldiers leapt towards her.

A dark-cloaked figure sprang up from under Corliss's feet, clutching a shining copper orb in its hands. It flew past the soldiers in the opposite direction, and the soldiers shouted in surprise and followed on its heels, aiming their spears expertly at its fleeing back.

Her face screwed up in concentration, Corliss remained kneeling behind the shop window, clutching the egg as tightly as she could in her gloved hands. She knew she couldn't keep up this illusion forever. The farther away the shadow-person got, the harder it was to control its movements. And besides, if the soldiers managed to hit it with a spear, they would no doubt realize something was up: most people don't keep running after a spear passes through them. But at least Corliss now knew none of them were magicians—or at least, none of them were skilled magicians—or they would have noticed the ruse.

Corliss mentally commanded the figure to continue running up the southward street, then continued on northward toward the wall, the egg stowed once again in her satchel. Her knees ached where she'd fallen, and she vaguely was aware that her gloves had torn and her hands were bleeding. She heard loud voices behind her, but couldn't tell how close they were. Her heartbeat had grown so loud it was impossible to think clearly. _Come on, you're almost there!_ She breathed to herself. _Just a bit farther…_

Finally the great wall loomed up over the low, ramshackle homes she was passing: a great gray barrier lined with sentries at the top and bottom, some holding lanterns, all holding spears. Many were likely magicians. Filled with panic despite herself, she forced herself to remember the plan. The plan! _Right…focus now,_ Corliss whispered to herself, and wove her way through the homes, looking for the right one.

Most of the homes here were more or less identical; they were one-storied and pressed up against one another, with small crowded yards and gardens facing the street. _Take the next left, now right, three blocks down, and fourth on the right...aha! _Corliss pumped an invisible fist in the air as she found the right house. It was shabby and cramped, like all the others, its only door an ill-fitting cloth curtain. Pushing through it, Corliss stepped inside and found it musty, stuffy, and mercifully empty, just according to plan. _  
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Lifting the protective spell over the dirt floor, Corliss smiled as a dark, narrow gap appeared in the ground. It widened until it was large enough for a person to leap through: not spacious by any means, but enough. Not wasting another moment, Corliss leapt into the tunnel entrance, the illusion reappearing as soon as she was underground. The second she landed in the tunnel, all light and sound from the city above died out. Undaunted by the pitch dark and damp, still air pressing around her, the girl began to crawl forward.

The minutes ticked by as she crept northward on hands and knees. The tunnel was narrow and extremely low, making a straight path far below the wall. If it trailed too near the surface, the magicians' spells would detect her presence exiting the city, but the fools had not considered to extend the spell below the ground, as Corliss had discovered with delight long ago.

It was utterly silent in the tunnel. The only sound was the shuffling of Corliss's hands and feet, and the occasional muttered curse when a piece of dirt crumbled from the ceiling into her eyes. Corliss made herself breathe evenly, her satchel bumping against her side as she went. She had allowed the invisibility spell to die out in the tunnel, and now the wisps of blonde hair falling out of her braid and into her eyes were annoyingly visible.

She continued to crawl. And crawl. How long had it been? Hours, certainly. Had the sun come up yet? Barzul, she hoped not. She wanted to be well away from Uru'baen by daylight. She urged herself faster, her legs stiff and cramping. Just when she thought she might scream with impatience, she smacked face-first into the end of the tunnel. She scooted back a few feet, rubbing the dirt off her nose.

"Garjzla," Corliss whispered, her voice sounding unnaturally loud after crawling for so long. A sphere of orange light appeared in her open palm, and she held it out in front of her like a beacon, peering around in the dark tunnel. With a sign of relief, the girl saw that the roof of the tunnel had risen just enough for her to stand. Rising stiffly, she spotted something in the corner of the exit. _Aha! _There sat a small leather bag filled with extra provisions for the next leg of her journey, as planned. Gratefully, she stuffed it into her satchel.

Corliss breathed deeply and sat down in the dim light of the tunnel. Despite the urgency of her mission, she needed a moment to rest. After all, the plan was going perfectly, as it should, and besides, she had crawled for at least three miles in this cursed tunnel, and it looked as though she had evaded the guards and even the king's magicians perfectly. She smiled at the fierce joy of completing a mission, of defying the king.

Now that she was out of the city, Corliss remembered happily, she could remove the final spell she had placed on herself. There was no need to disguise herself as a human servant any longer; she planned to spend the rest of the journey invisible anyway, so there was no need for another spell on top of it. "Moi eka aptr unin halfr dvergr."_  
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As the spell took effect, the girl's body began to change. Corliss winced in discomfort as her bones shifted and changed. Her frame grew stockier, and her legs, arms and torso shrank slightly, her clothes shifting in size as well. Her hair morphed from a wispy blonde braid to a much coarser, dark brown one. Her face widened, her nose flattened a bit, and freckles sprang up on her arms and the bridge of her nose.

Corliss sighed in relief. It was so nice to be herself again! She had hated that disguise, as necessary as it had been: for almost two months now she had worn the disguise of one of the castle's servants, a human scullery maid named Oliva, and _barzul, _it had gotten uncomfortable. She wiggled her fourteen toes happily, looking at her shoes, magically expanded back to their normal size. No wonder she had tripped back in the city, trying to run with tiny human feet like hers had been!

The half dwarf took a look at herself critically, and sighed. Her pants were ripped and muddy from crawling all that way in the tunnel, and her knees were scabbed and sore, but it was nothing she couldn't live with. There was dirt in her braided hair and dirt coating her clothes, but that wasn't exactly a priority either. Shuddering from weariness, Corliss stuffed her gloved hands in her pockets and hunched over her satchel, trying to keep warm. She didn't want to start moving again just yet…her muscles _ached_, and she had made such good distance already…

Her satchel twitched.

Corliss jolted upright, startled out of her wits, and threw the bag down. Had a mouse crawled in there or something? She lifted the leather flap and looked inside cautiously, feeling an odd sort of shaking again as she did so. What was…_no_.

That was impossible. It couldn't be...not for a half-dwarf. _Not for **me.**_

But even as she watched in disbelief, the strange copper egg twitched violently and rolled out of the satchel. The eggshell, glowing dimly in the orange light Corliss had made, had sprouted a lightning-shaped crack down its side. As though in slow motion, it shattered at the girl's feet. Her blood froze in her veins, but whether from horror or excitement she didn't know.

At her feet sat a dragon.

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><p><em>Frethya eka frá ven: Hide me from sight.<em>

_Barzul: the dwarvish equivalent of "damn it," basically. At least that's how I'm interpreting it._

_Garjzla: light_

_Moi eka aptr unin halfr dvergr: _Change me back into a half-dwarf.__

So this story has been in the works for a long time, and I've made a ton of changes to it. I've had Corliss in my head for so long now, and she's undergone a ton of changes too. She started out very different (and entirely human) in _Wandering Path and Bolt of Lightning, _my first failed story that was probably more than a little cliche. So let me know what you think, and I'll have the next chapter out soon! Also if you're thinking it starts out a bit cliched, well, I kind of agree, but it gets much less so in future chapters. Hopefully. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Corliss's brain struggled to form thoughts. All it could do was stare at the creature in front of her, repeating the same thing over and over without comprehension:

The egg had hatched.

The egg had hatched _for her._

This baby dragon had _hatched for her_, not _five miles_ outside of the walls of Uru'baen, in a crude, flimsy tunnel, protected by weak spells that most of the king's magicians could likely penetrate, and…and…Corliss forced herself to breathe. _Stay calm. Stay calm above all else._ Her breathing slowly returned to normal as she stared at the dragon, but her heart still was pounding so hard she thought it might break her ribcage.

"Oh, _Guntera below_, how did this happen?" the girl asked hoarsely, studying the creature sitting in front of her.

It was a small, harmless-looking thing really, no bigger than a large jackrabbit. The dragon was staring at her curiously with wide copper eyes, its long neck stretched upward and ending in a flat, triangular head and pointed snout. Its wings were half-unfolded, almost golden in color, and still a bit crumpled-looking from being inside its egg. Other than its swishing tail, it was completely motionless.

The dragon's smooth, metallic copper scales made it look more like a statue of a dragon than a living one, Corliss thought, and she wondered if its scales felt like metal as well. Impulsively she reached out and brushed the dragon's spiny head with her hand.

Her arm jerked back like lightning as the skin on her palm seared with pain. "_Barzul_!" she swore as she cradled her right hand to her stomach and glared at the dragon. It sneezed, then looked up at her again, blinking owlishly. "_What did you do that for_?" Corliss exclaimed, gritting her teeth with pain, though something told her that it wasn't the baby dragon's fault.

When she dared to look at her right hand again, she was horrified to see a huge pearly scar there, one that she had only ever read about. It was the same mark that was said to rest on the palm of Eragon Shadeslayer: the _gedwey ignasia_. She ran her left thumb across it gingerly, a knot of dread forming in her stomach. She knew what this meant.

This little copper dragon had chosen her to be its Rider.

"What in _sweet Guntera's_ _name_ did you pick me for?" asked Corliss, sinking to the tunnel floor, her limbs feeling like lead. She stretched her legs out with effort and looked around the cave. The sun had still not risen yet; she could stay in this cave safely for a bit longer before moving on. After all, her circumstances _had _changed somewhat, she thought distantly.

The dragon walked over to her, like a toddler taking its first steps, and plopped down across her knees. Corliss flinched, but the dragon's scales didn't burn her again. And she had been right; its scales did feel like metal, but warm, as though heated in front of a roaring fire.

"_Well_?" Corliss insisted, gingerly touching the spikes along its back. "Why me? You ought to know about the dragons' pact with the riders. It's just for elves and humans, not half-dwarves like me—" The dragon snapped at her fingers. "Hey!" the girl exclaimed. It nipped at her hand again, then abruptly crawled off of her legs in a tangle of limbs and wings. It stumbled over to her satchel a few feet away, where it stuck its long neck in and began rooting around.

"Hey, _barzul, _no, you'd better not eat my—"

The baby dragon turned back toward Corliss, its little mouth full of strips of dried meat.

"Damn you, that jerky was supposed to last me for…for…" The girl trailed off, pressing her hand to her forehead in confusion. Her head hurt. But not her head, really, her _mind_ hurt…almost as though someone was trying to break down her mental walls and read her thoughts. Her eyes fell suspiciously on the dragon, which was still happily gulping down her meat rations. Strange…she could definitely feel a sense of joy, of contentment, the sort one gets after eating a meal after a long fast…and that feeling wasn't coming from within her, but from—

Corliss's heart skipped a beat. _Uh...dragon? _She thought tentatively.

_Corliss. _

Oh, Guntera, the dragon was in her mind! _…You ate all of my jerky, _was the only thing she could think to say.

_Jerky, _the small voice in her mind repeated.

_Yes. And now it's all gone. _Corliss pulled the dragon out of her satchel and emptied its contents onto the cave floor, looking for something the dragon hadn't gotten to yet.

_Corliss._

_One minute. _She found some dried fruit and mushrooms the dragon clearly hadn't been interested in, and ate those hurriedly.

_Minute, _the dragon repeated, then yawned.

"You learn words quickly," Corliss observed out loud, rearranging her goods in the satchel. "But we're going to have to move on now. The sun's almost up. Resting will have to wait." And so would wondering how the egg had hatched for her, Corliss decided. Perhaps the elves would be able to tell her when they reached Du Weldenvarden? _If _they reached it, that is, Corliss thought with dread.

_Sun?_

"Yes, that's right, you nuisance. Come on now," she replied, scooping up the little creature and positioning it on top of her satchel. Before hoisting herself up out of the tunnel entrance, she stopped and performed her standard protective spells: one for invisibility and one to erase her footsteps behind her. She paused to think of the right words, then cast a third spell as well.

"There. Now you should be invisible to everyone but me." The dragon scrabbled up her arm to sit on her shoulder, wide copper eyes staring up at the tunnel's exit. "Just stay with me and stay quiet, and maybe we'll have a chance_." As much as a snowball's chance in Morgothal's pocket_, Corliss added privately, before remembering that the dragon could hear her thoughts. _Oops_.

As the girl stood up in the open air, Corliss's mind was nearly overwhelmed with the dragon's excitement at its first view of the sky. The sun was just coming up in the distance, turning the sky into a haze of pink and copper. The dragon nudged her excitedly, its long snout jabbing insistently at her neck. _Sun-dragon,_ it thought happily. _Sun-dragon-me, Corliss. _

_I…don't understand._

_Sun-dragon! _

_The sun isn't a dragon. I…well, it _is_ copper colored like you right now. It's called a sunrise. _

The dragon squeaked in surprise as a flock of birds flew overhead, black specks in the fiery sky. _Dragon!_

_No, not dragons. Those are just birds. But when you're older, you'll be able to fly like them._

_Fly! Fly, sunrise, sun-dragon fly! Sunrise, sunrise, birds, older-copper-dragon-sun, minute, dragon, sunrise, Corliss! _

Corliss felt the dragon's excitement again at reciting its new vocabulary. It continued to babble at her and she began to laugh despite herself. She felt the warmth of the dragon's happiness flood their mental connection, and she let her worries ebb away, at least for the moment.

She would get them safely out of here and into Du Weldenvarden, Corliss insisted to herself. She mentally reviewed the path she had to take; she could still make it, even if she now carried a dragon instead of an egg. Even if nothing had gone according to plan. Even if her entire future had now changed. She clenched her fist in determination. She would succeed.

She had to.

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><p>Guntera: the king of the dwarvish gods<p>

Morgothal: the dwarvish god of fire

Please let me know what you think of the story so far! Especially in regards to the dragon hatchling; it was kind of difficult to write, but I really enjoyed it and wanted it to be distinctly different from the egg-hatching scene in _Eragon._

Also, my normal updates won't be nearly this quick, and my chapters won't be quite this short. I just really wanted Corliss and her dragon to have their first chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As they walked—or rather, as Corliss walked and the dragon crawled up and down her back and from one shoulder to the other like a squirrel in a tree—Corliss's worries began to return. She had seen Galbatorix's men several times since she had left the cave that morning, and although most of them were far off in the distance, they were still uncomfortably close.

_See bad men?_ asked the dragon, now doing its best to perch on top of Corliss's head.

_Yes. But they're not too close yet. _Corliss pushed the dragon's tail out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear, picking up her pace to a steady jog. _I'm worried that they'll be able to detect my invisibility spells from a distance, if they have a powerful enough magician with them._

Corliss could sense the dragon struggling to put words together. It had already learned quite a few in the last few hours, alternating between sleeping in the girl's satchel and practicing her vocabulary while climbing up and down Corliss's limbs, making puncture marks in her clothes with its claws and tangling its spiny tail in her hair. Finally it found the proper words. _Why no…not…fly…away? In sky? Like bird?_

Corliss snorted. _I wish I could fly away, but I don't have wings, and you're too small to fly me anywhere for a long while. We'll have to do with walking for now. _It had been over two days since she'd gotten any sleep, but Corliss was used to long hours and strenuous physical exertion in her line of work. Her heightened endurance, inherited from her dwarf father, certainly didn't hurt either.

_Want to fly now. _The dragon paused to think of its words again. _Walk slow._

_Well, there's a village a few days north of here. Hopefully I can buy a horse without arousing suspicion. Riding a horse won't be like flying, but it'll be faster._

_Want to__** fly**__, Corliss, _insisted the dragon, and Corliss felt the creature's fierce longing in her mind. The dragon had tried to fly several times that day as Corliss walked or jogged along, and had merely tumbled off of the girl's shoulder and into the tall dead grass each time.

Corliss felt the dragon getting ready to spring off of her shoulder yet again. _Why don't you take a break from flight practice?_ The dragon ignored her, tensing its muscles and twitching its tail like a cat about to pounce. _I know,_ the girl said as a thought came to her. _Let's think of a name for you. I can't keep calling you "dragon."_

_But name…not Dragon? _the dragon replied, tilting its head in confusion.

_No, of course it's not! You can't be named Dragon._

_Oh_. The dragon hung its head sadly, then leapt back up a moment later. _Then…then name Corliss!_

_What?_ the girl sputtered._ That's my name, you can't have it!_

The dragon pouted a bit, and they both fell silent, thinking. Corliss struggled to remember the names of the dragons she had read about in the great dwarven library on her travels to Durgrimst Ebardac. _Let's see…I think most dragons were given Elvish names. _Corliss recalled with a grimace. _Even the human riders named their dragons in the ancient language. Ugh, that won't do._

_Can…can't name…be Corliss? _The dragon asked again, pausing to think of the right words.

_No! For Helzvog's sake, that's __**my **__name. But…_ Another thought occurred to Corliss. _You do want a girl's name, then? Are you a female? Or a male?_

_Female? Male?_

_Oh, you know…_Corliss struggled to explain to the dragon as she tromped through the tall grass, her footprints magically erasing themselves behind her. _For instance…I'm a female, a woman. They're the ones that…give birth to new babies, and, well…_this was harder to explain than she'd thought. _And men are…ugh, I don't know if it's the same for dragons. But dwarf men, and human men, I suppose, are bigger by a bit, and have beards and deeper voices…_Corliss projected images of men and women to the dragon, hoping that would help. What did those books say about male and female dragons? She couldn't remember. Were females supposed to be bigger? She had a feeling they were...

_Males have…have beard. Want beard!_

_Well, you're a dragon. You won't get one of those._

_…Oh. _Corliss sensed disappointment emanating from their mental link. _Then…female. Want be female. Females…more beautiful. Males not beautiful._

_Good-looking men are called handsome, not beautiful, _Corliss corrected, unsure of what else to say.

_…I am…not male. Not handsome male. Not ugly female. __**Beautiful**__ female. Female like you._

_You're sure?_

_Yes! _The dragon insisted, more certainly now. _Beautiful female! Beautiful female!_

Well, she knew dragons weren't supposed to be modest, Corliss supposed.

_But…still want beard._

Corliss snorted with laughter. A dragon with a beard? Maybe this strange creature was meant to hatch for a half-dwarf after all!

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><p>Another short chapter! I'll have another out pretty soon though. Please let me know what you think of this story! I'm really enjoying writing the parts with the dragon hatchling, and I'm hoping I'm doing it justice. I wasn't a huge fan of how it was all done in the books, so let me know if the changes I'm making are for the better! :)<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Quick note: This story's name sucks. I know it, y'all know it, so if you have any suggestions for a better, more interesting title than "Illusions" please let me know in a review or message!

And so without further ado, here's the next chapter.

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

"Setta," Corliss repeated out loud, testing the name in the evening air.

_Setta, _the dragon insisted, shifting restlessly on the girl's shoulder. _Setta, Setta, Setta._

_What does it mean? _Corliss asked, confused.

_Me, _the dragon answered impatiently. _Beautiful-female-dragon Setta._

_Oh, _was all Corliss could think to say in reply.

For most of the afternoon and evening they had been discussing names for her new hatchling. They had had no close run-ins yet with any of the king's magicians or soldiers, and while Corliss was relieved at this, their absence had begun to feel troubling. She had expected soldiers to be right on her trail as it was, and that wasn't even accounting for the lost time she had taken when her dragon had hatched!

But no, instead their day had been quite peaceful, only a few glimpses of enemy soldiers to be seen, and those relatively far off in the hills to the southwest. So, praying to Guntera that their luck would hold out, Corliss and the hatchling had been discussing names, taking a break every few hours for rest and food.

Corliss wasn't too enthusiastic about naming her dragon after an existing one, and thankfully her dragon hadn't cared for any of their names. But just in case, Corliss had reluctantly offered up Jura, Agaravel, Ophelia, Miremel, and several other (frankly _Elvish _sounding) names from vaguely-remembered history books, but all had been rejected brutally. _Thank goodness, _Corliss had thought to herself. '_Ophelia?' Ugh. _

Once those names were dismissed, the dragon had begun to suggest her own, to Corliss's surprise. Some of them were based on words she had learned from her Rider, and others, like her new favorite, "Setta," were a complete mystery to Corliss.

Sensing her confusion, the dragon explained. _Setta is name for…for…sound of dragon wing in sky like bird, and wind on…dragon scales, and sharp teeth in…in—_

_Uh…jaws? _supplied Corliss, mystified, seeing the dragon's mental image.

_Yes, sharp teeth in jaws with fire. Name for strong-beautiful-female-dragon Setta!_

Corliss didn't think dragon's wingbeats or wind or fire breath would sound much like "Setta," but nonetheless, the dragon's thought process fascinated her. She wasn't even sure she had taught the dragon the word "fire" yet. Did dragons have some sort of collective memory, inherited from their ancestors, where she might know the word? Or had Corliss merely thought the word at some point and her dragon picked it up?

_It doesn't sound much like any other dragon name I've heard. But that's a good thing, _Corliss told the dragon. _I mean, compared to those frilly Elvish names, Setta is quite nice. Though it sounds downright musical compared to most Dwarfish names._

_Your name Dwarfish? _

_No, Corliss is a human name. My mother insisted on a human name for me, but she didn't realize how much it would alienate me from the high priests of Durgrimst Quan. They're sticklers for tradition, after all. _A thought came to Corliss, making her laugh bitterly. _ I wonder what they'd make of you!_

Before her dragon could reply, a shadow fell over them both, ever so briefly. Corliss stopped dead in her tracks, eyes widening with fear, searching the skies, until she saw—

_Dragon! Big red-fire-sun dragon! _Her dragon chirped from her shoulder. She began to flap her wings excitedly.

_Get down, Setta! _Corliss exclaimed in a panic, dragging the hatchling down into the tall grass and laying low. _Guntera, let our invisibility spells hold!_

Thorn and his Rider flew so high above them that the red dragon appeared no larger than an eagle in the sky, yet Corliss could feel their presence as though a shadow was pressing down upon her from all sides. Her hatchling, feeling Corliss's panic, lay low and quiet next to her Rider. _Can't see us, _the dragon thought.

_But they can sense us, _Corliss replied. _All they have to do is cast a simple spell, and they'll detect us and…_she didn't want to finish the thought.

And yet the seconds dragged by in the tall grass, stretching into minute after agonizing minute. The red dragon had all but disappeared in the distance, and still nothing happened. _Why have they not found us? _Corliss exclaimed in her mind, still shaking with fear. _It should be so easy for them: one simple spell to locate their precious egg, and then they would be on us like lightning! _She rose shakily to her feet, peering around uneasily.

Suddenly she felt an odd sensation coming from her mental link with her dragon. Was that…amusement? _What is it? _she snapped, still shaken from the sight of the red dragon.

Her dragon's tail began to shake back and forth, and a gurgle escaped from her throat.

"_What _is it, Setta?" Corliss hissed out loud. "This isn't time for—"

_Egg, _the dragon replied, before succumbing to her gurgling laughs again.

"Egg? What do you…-" Corliss stared at the little copper dragon for a moment, before realization hit her.

"Egg!" she gasped, then doubled over with laughter, falling back into the tall grass helplessly. Oh, this was brilliant! This was more than she could ever have hoped for!

They were looking for an egg, not a dragon! None of their spells were seeking out a living, breathing _dragon! _After all, what were the odds an egg would hatch for the first and only person to touch it after it was stolen?

As her laughter died away, Corliss turned to her little copper dragon. She embraced the hatchling tightly, ignoring the many spikes on its neck and back, and offered a fervent prayer of thanks to Helzvog for her good fortune. _Setta, we would have been captured if you hadn't hatched for me when you did. _

_Setta, _repeated the dragon, with a hint of pride. _Setta, Setta, Setta._

_It's a good name, _Corliss agreed. She took a long breath and stared up at the cloudless sky, suddenly imagining what her dragon would look like, soaring like Thorn through that vast expanse of blue.

_Corliss, _the dragon thought contentedly.

_Setta._

* * *

><p>Please let me know what you think of this chapter! I wanted my naming chapter to be very different from Eragon's and Saphira's, and I really like the idea of the dragon making her own name. I'm pretty sure Paolini said that Thorn chose his own name as well. It just seems more...dragon-ish.<p>

And yes, I know Setta doesn't sound very much like other dragon names in the series. It's not really supposed to. She's a pretty odd dragon, as you'll see more clearly later. But still, let me know what you think of it! Reviews are beautiful things :)

And don't worry, more action is coming up soon!


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